Comments on: This is your brain on a placebo.

By: Gewitternacht

Gewitternacht — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:33:40 +0000

Sorry, I’m a bit late with this, but I’d love to see Derren do some work with chronic pain patients. My boyfriend has been suffering from chronic upper back pain for 15 years and it seriously impacts on our lives.

Unfortunately, he also thinks of Derren as ‘weird’ and ‘creepy’, so you’ll need to find yourself another guinea pig, I’m afraid…

By: flapjack

flapjack — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:46:44 +0000

Had a Placebo album once… it was a blank CD.

By: Nopke

Nopke — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:01:37 +0000

But hey … the effect of regular medicine or the real thing can be plainly in the mind as well …. no matter what they saw in their results …(well, in a way it is always all in the mind ofcourse ..).

Giving placebo\’s to people in a study is one thing, giving them to people who went to a doctor .. nope, should not be legal. The insight of lots of doctors is not that immense I\’ve noticed (you have to tell them the diagnose quite often and then they at times till dont see it .. even not when it is written in their journals already ……….makes you wonder huh? Took a little too much of their own drugs? Ofcourse it\’s easy to explain how they got there .. but they are clearly not in the right job .. that as well).

Oh, and placebo\’s wont work in all people. Only in those who will indeed open up on the inside .. put their trust in the placebo and have something that should be cured but is being triggered by something else.
But only in a few cases.

In studies they often use a group who gets placebo\’s whereas the others get the real thing. To rule out any possible psychological effects. Which is ofcourse not all possible. I myself dont see the point of those type of studies. Waste of time. And also, they so dont check the so called healthy group thorough enough .. in a way all projects with volunteers involved vs patients are never 100%. And one patient is not the other.

Bla bla bla ..

But hey, you have to start somewhere .. (them, the scientists). I know.

Maybe a nice gesture .. swop placebo with the real medication and dont tell the first team of scientists that will diagnose the results … Also in them .. there might be another effect at work now and then. They have a focus … they start always with a certain focus. In case of doubt … not difficult to see which side they will choose quite often. Not all .. but hey …
Science .. not a 100% proof either. Hardly. Only if you narrow your vision and the field and even then …

Life .. I think it is a placebo …

By: Brian McDee

Brian McDee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:27:33 +0000

Another question could be – is pain actually pain?

Example: say you put the point of a knife on your arm very lightly, then gradually press in until you feel “pain”. At what point does it become pain? Is all ‘feeling’ just a lower threshold of pain like gripping the mouse of your computer?

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:46:02 +0000

also reminded of the scene in Lawrence of Arabia where Peter O’Toole is burning himself with matches and says (approximately) “Of course it hurts. The trick is in not MINDING that it hurts.”

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:43:17 +0000

With acupuncture i think it’s a combination of placebo and the effect of having someone fuss over you for an hour or so that makes some folks feel better afterward. Another study showed that the treatment, either traditional or sham, only worked when it was administered by a purported professional in a clinical setting. If you took the needles home and did it yourself, e.g., you wouldn’t get the same result.

By: Emma Rose

Emma Rose — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:49:55 +0000

Some army guys who were captured and tortured for months managed to train them selves into enjoying pain, so it just felt nice rather than painful. It’s surprising what the mind can do.

By: Lisa Schlegel

Lisa Schlegel — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:37:52 +0000

If I were a scientist, I’d study the physical mechanics of stimulation of the skin by pointy objects. Tissue changes caused by acupuncture needles can now be observed as well as the resulting chemical changes in the brain. Perhaps it doesn’t matter so much exactly where the needles or toothpicks go, but the stimulation itself may have an impact that is being overlooked. The placebo effect is present for any medical intervention, but it doesn’t appear to explain everything.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:47:42 +0000

This whole subject confuses me….I had 3 attempted epidurals during childbirth, all of which failed, but if the placebo effect is real then surely I’d have felt a little less like I was dying and that sooo wasn’t the case!!

By: mturf

mturf — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:36:35 +0000

i wish there was a way for me to ask my doctor if i could try a placebo. i know that sounds stupid, but i’m willing to try anything. i’m sure asking for it, and knowing about it, would make it ineffectual. maybe i should ask if there’s any “experiments” and whatnot going on i could be part of.
good to know drugs can hinder placebo effects tho, i think thats interesting.